Cellular (mobile) voice/data expense is a monthly recurring cost item. As one embodiment of the invention, we will use voice minutes usage in our description herein with the straightforward extension being applied, but not limited to data usage.
It is often difficult for a corporate user to subscribe to an optimal plan, one that will minimize the long term annual expense. A cellular voice subscription plan is generally characterized by the following parameters: a fixed MRC (monthly recurring cost); a monthly minute allowance above which a per-minute charge will apply—the higher the MRC, the larger is the minute allowance. For example, a hypothetical plan may provide 1,000 monthly minutes for a fixed MRC of $79.99, above which a user is billed at $0.25 per minute. If a user should consume less than the monthly minute allowance, the user pays $79.99 for the month.
Since a user does not know in advance her/his exact usage, a small plan (small monthly minute allowance and low MRC) may result in expensive overage charges. On the other hand, a plan too large will result in wasted unused minutes. Usage fluctuation makes ad hoc subscription plan selection non-optimal. Any intelligent subscription optimization has to take into account not just a user's average monthly minute usage, but also its fluctuation. As input parameter to “optimal” plan selection, prior arts use moving average to represent usage profile with ad hoc adjustment to buffer month-to-month usage fluctuation. The lack of an appropriate objective function makes existing methods sub-optimal.
The existence of usage sharing (corporate equivalent of a family plan), in which a group of users collectively share a pool of voice minutes, makes the modeling and evaluation of an appropriate objective (cost) function all the more critical—to take into account the collective usage fluctuation (the sum of minutes consumed by users in a group) in determining the optimal size of the shared minute pool.
In a shared pool (minutes) environment, the total pool cost has to be shared amongst the pool users. It is critical to establish a cost allocation/distribution scheme which is fair and incentive compatible (a single user is cost-wise better off to join to pool other than subscribing to a best available plan).
To develop a cost allocation rule, it is important to establish a baseline cost as a benchmark for each individual user: what is the least cost a user can enjoy on his/her own.
Price benchmarking can also be used to realize savings through negotiations and/or competitive bidding, particularly for a corporation with international presence.
In addition to cellular voice service plan provisioning, individual user has his/her own specific mobility needs: roaming charges (particularly international) and data usage (domestic and international).
Cellular voice charge is based on air time. Corporate sponsored toll free conference bridges (e.g., 800 or 888 calls) incur additional expenses if a local alternative is not used even when available. Instant real-time information to provide low(er) cost alternatives is desirable to utilize the availability of corporate toll free conference bridges—to minimize overall expenses.
Directory assistance calls are expensive when a no-cost alternative (e.g., 800-GOOGLE-411) is neither used nor made aware.
It is desirable to alert a user with a limited data plan, in real time, his/her data usage to provide awareness of usage approaching its monthly limit.
U.S. wireless carriers allow pooling as an added feature for a fee: users in a pool share a common pool of minute allowance for a fixed monthly fee. A per minute charge is levied when the users in a pool collectively exhausted the monthly minute allowance.
Local and state taxes/fees in the U.S. can vary widely with percentage rate ranging between low teens to low twenties. Judicial billing location optimization subject to legal constraints can result in lower cellular expenses.
Non uniform reporting formats/schemes in carriers' CDR (Call Detail Record) make it difficult to have a common view of usages/expenses across different vendors.
Timely user and management access to billing information is essential to provide on-going costs/usages monitoring, feature auditing and report generations.
Therefore there is a need for a comprehensive expense monitoring/optimization system to manage a corporation's corporate liable cellular device accounts without imposing unwarranted hardship and hindrance on the users in productivity enhancement.
Such a system includes at least the following elements: international plan/cost benchmarking and plan choice negotiation, cost minimization of cellular voice expenses to take advantage of a shared pool of minutes, equitable chargeback of pooling expenses to appropriate corporate cost centers, optimal individual user feature subscription (e.g., roaming, international dialing, etc.), uniform database architecture to provide a common platform for diverse reporting formats/schemes by carriers, timely access to relevant and hierarchical access-controlled information by individuals and managers, reporting systems to monitor usages and expenses, active real time alert to users providing low cost alternatives as well as non-intrusive and non-work-obstruction behavioral modification.